Lamp mount loader



- Filed June 17,' 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet l 4 sheets-sheet 2 Sept. 29, 1959 E. E. YEO -ETAL' LAMP MOUNT LOADER Filed June 17, 1955 INVENTOR ERA/E57' E. YEOS BHYf/VRY MLONEY ATTORNEY,

I Sept. 29, 1959 E, E, YE() ETAL 2,906,416

LAMP MOUNT LOADER Filed June 17, 1955 4 sheets-sheet s ATTORNEY Sept. 29, 1959 E, E, YEQ ET AL 2,906,416

LAMP MOUNT LOADER Filed June 1v, 1955 4 sheets-sheet 4 lNvENToRs ERNEST E. V50 B/E/VRY MALO/VFY ATTORNEY United States Patent O M LAMP MOUNT LOADER Ernest E.v Yeo, Wenham, and Henry B. Maloney, Wakefield, Mass., assignors, by mesne assignments, to Sylvania Electric Products Inc., Wilmington, Del., a corporation of Delaware Application June 17, 1955, Serial No. 516,213

4 Claims. (Cl. 214-1) This invention relates to apparatus for the manufacture of electric lamps or similar devices, and is particularly useful in the manufacture of lamps of the incandescent type, although not limited thereto. Such lamps ordinarily comprise an open-necked glass bulb and a flared glass closure member therefor, called a stem. The bulb and stem are joined together on a sealing machine. Before reaching the sealing machine, however, the stem passes through a mount-making machine, in which lead-in wires are sealed through the stem, a filament connected to said wires, and an exhaust tube sealed to the stem. The stem plus these additions is called a mount.

An object of the present invention is to facilitate the transfer of such a mount from one machine to another. I Aproblem existed in such transfer because the stem is best carried through the mount machine in a filamentdown position, yet the sealing of the stem to the bulb is better eectuated with the stem in the filament-up position. The mount should therefore be turned over or inverted in its journey from one machine to the other.

Accordingly, a further object of the invention is to accomplish the turning over of the mount before it is fed to the sealing mechanism, and to do so automatically.

In the illustrative embodiment to be described, the turning is accomplished by the use of a conveying mechanism with rotatable mount-holders, each of the latter carrying a gear which meshes with a rack at the position where turn-over is desired.

After the latter has been effected, the mount must be delivered to the sealing machine, which has a spindle to receive it. This is accomplished by conveying a mount-holder to a position above one of said spindles and in register therewith, then causing the mount to be released from the holder and to drop onto said spindle. If the mount-holder has jaws which grip the mount, the release can be effected by opening the jaws.

After the mount is received by the spindle, the latter drops to bring the mount below the jaws which had formerly held it, so that the spindle is then free to carry the mount through the sealing cycle in a path below, and out of contact with, the jaws and their conveyor.

During the above operations, the general alignment of the stem should be controlled, because each of the two lead-in wires generally is of different material, one of said wires including a fusible portion which should go to a particular contact on a base when the latter is eventually aixed to the sealed lamp. The alignment is fixed by taking advantage of the fact that the mount has a flattened portion called the press. A short rail is set in back of the position which the press will occupy just after being transferred to the conveyor, and a flexible strip contacts the press on transfer, forcing it back gently against the rail and keeping it aligned therewith. This keeps the stem in the same alignment that it had on the machine from which it was transferred.

After transfer and alignment, the stem is gripped by holders and held secure, so that it will maintain its 2,906,416 Patented Sept. 29, 1959 alignment. -Of course, on subsequent tum-over of the mount, the lead-in wires will be reversed in position, but with that in mind, the original alignment is made such that after reversal it will be correct for use in the sealing machine and subsequent machines. The alignment is thus controlled, and will not be haphazard.

A further object of the preferred embodiment of the invention is to feed the mounts to the sealing machine in pairs, and in particular to feed the mounts in pairs to non-adjacent spindles on the sealing machine, because the latter facilitates subsequent automatic feeding of the bulbs over the mounts. In such a case, instead of feeding two mounts to two adjacent spindles, the device can simultaneously feed one mount to one spindle and another to, say, the third spindle away from the first-mentioned spindle.

To achieve that result, the path of the mount-holders, which is on a level above that of the spindles, is brought into registration with the path of the spindles at two points, and the spacings of the spindles and of the mount-holders are so chosen that two non-adjacent mount-holders will be above and in register with, respectively, two non-adjacent spindles at said points, which will be the positions at which the mounts are transferred from the mount-holders to the spindles. These are called loading stations. Since the sealing heads, of which the spindles are a part, are generally much larger than the mount-holders, there will ordinarily be a larger number of mount-holders than of spindles ybetween the loading stations. But the number of spindles between the two loading stations and the number of mount-holders/between said stations, should each be even numbers, in order to insure that a filled mount-holder and a non-filled spindle come together at the later loading station.

When the mounts are large -and the distance through which the spindles can drop to continue their path on a lower level is small, either because space is limited or because the dwell time for a longer drop is too long, a further problem presents itself. Each alternate spindle is loaded at the iirst loading station yand moves on; but each alternate mount-holder also moves on and still carries a mount, intended for release at the second loading station. Since the sealing heads, of which the spindle is a part, are generally larger than the mount-holders, the spacing between the latter is generally made smaller than that between sealing spindles, and so each indexing movement carries each spindle a greater distance than it-carries a mount holder. Accordingly, the iirst index after loading will carry the loaded spindle beyond and below the next mount-holder, and the latter will contain a mount.

If the mounts are large enough, the top of the spindleheld mount may pass close to, and collide with, the bottom of the exhaust tube of the mount above on the mount loader head. A small deflection of the path of the mount-holder conveyor, which is generally of the chain type, will keep the mounts just out of contact, and such a dellection can be provided by using an idler sprocket to deflect the chain of the conveyor to a slightly different path. fi he amount of deection needed is generally quite small.

As an aid in accommodating the mount-loading chain spacings to the chordal distance between spindle loading positions on the sealing turret, the end sprockets for the conveyor chain can be placed with their axes somewhat closer together than they would be if on radial lines drawn from the axis of the sealing machine through the loading positions.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view, partially cut away, of the mountloading machine of our invention;

Fig. 2 is a front-elevation view, partially in section, of the mount-loading machine of our invention;

Fig. 3 is a top view of a suggested form of mountloader head which constitutes an important component of oui invention;

Fig. 4 is a sectional front-elevation view of said mountloader head including a phantom view showing the way in which a mount is grasped by said head;

Fig. 5 is a sectional end view of said mount-loader head, taken between the points 5-5 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a top view of a portion of the conveyor which constitutes an important component of our invention, said portion of the conveyor carrying three mount-loader heads and illustrating the way in which parts of saidrespective heads are successively rotated to eiect the desired righting of the lamp mounts;

Fig. 7 is a front elevation of the same portion of the conveyor, again showing three mount-loader heads and illustrating the righting of the mount;

Fig. 8 is a plan View of a -ratchet wheel, lock and indexing pawl taken between the points 8--8 in Fig. 2; and

Fig. 9 is a cut-away View taken along line 9-9 of Fig. 8 but showing the central shaft in full View rather thanin section.

Turning to Fig. 1 of the drawings, the operation of the mount loader according to our invention may be rather quickly summarized in such a way as to promote a good understanding of the operation without going into great detail as to the mechanical linkages involved. Brief references will be made to gures other than Fig. 1 insofar as is necessary to promote the clarity of this brief summary of mount-loader operation.

As lamp mounts are accumulated on an intermediate conveyor or mount accumulator generally designated in Figs. 1 and 2 by the reference numeral 11, the mounts appear in those views as shown by the reference numeral 12. It will be noted by referring to Fig. 2 that a lamp mount when resting in conveyor or accumulator 11 is oriented in a position with its filament assembly downward and with its support derived from a mount-carrier fork 61 or 62 as best shown in Fig. 1. When a mounttransfer slide 13 is actuated to the right by a mechanical linkage later to be described, two lamp mounts move out into a position where they can be grasped by jaws 14, 15, 16 and 17 of two mount-loader heads represented generally by the reference numerals 18 and 19. Prior to the time when mount-transfer slide 13 was actuated to the right, the aforementioned jaws had opened so that the lamp mounts might enter thereinto, as shown in the view of Fig. 2. Next, the jaws of the respective mountloader heads close upon the exhaust tubes 20 of the respective lamp mounts, restraining said lamp mounts firmly against further motion except as caused by motion of the mount-loader heads. Following the close of the mount-loader head jaws upon the respective exhaust tubes of the two lamp mounts, mount-transfer slide 13 retracts to the left, leaving the lamp mounts borne by the mountloader heads free to move with the respective heads.

Motion of the mount-loader heads, each carrying a lamp mount, is eiected by means of a conveyor generally represented by the reference numeral 22 and including an endless chain 23 alternate links of which may each carry a mount-loader head. As the conveyor chain 23 is actuated in a clockwise direction, as viewed in Fig. l, by a mechanism later to be described, the mount-loader heads proceed to carry the lamp mounts in the direction of travel of the conveyor chain, and this motion continues Without interruption until the mount-loader head reaches point 25 as best seen in the View of Fig. 1. In Order to understand what takes place at point 25, it will be necessary to explain that each mount-loader head comprises a portion which is iixed to the conveyor chain and a portion which is free to rotate with respect to said iixed portion. Rotation of the rotatable portion `is induced by means of the bevel pinions each of which may lembraces the exhaust tube of a lamp mount.

be an integral part of said rotatable portion. When the travel of the conveyor chain brings each mount-loader head to point 25, the bevel pinion engages a rack 26 which, `as the travel of the conveyor chain continues, brings about a ISO-degree rotation of the rotatable por tion of the mount-loader head with respect to the fixed portion. It will be understood that, since the lamp mount has remained gripped in the jaws of a mountloader head during this travel, the lamp mount will have assumed a iilament-up position by the time the mountloader head has passed rack 26. Prior to the time when the mount-loader head reached rack 26, rotation ofthe rotatable portion of the head was prevented by means of a flat place milled on said rotatable portion, said flat place being so arranged as to bear against a cooperating ilat place on the frame of conveyor 22. After each mount-loader head passes rack 26, another flat place on the head engages a guide on the conveyor frame which prevents further -rotation of the rotatable Vportion ofthe head. Thus, by the time the mount-loader head Yhas passed rack 26 and continued its travel, the rotatable portion has undergone a relative rotation which is limited vto degrees.

As the mount-loader head continues its progress in the clockwise direction of Fig. 1, it arrives in the neighborhood of the spindles which form parts of the lampsealing machine and to which the lamp mounts are to be transferred in predetermined positions. The large turret of the lamp-sealing machine is represented gcnerally by the reference numeral 30 in Fig. 1, and some of the spindles carried by the sealing machine turret are represented by the numerals 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36. ln order to fulll the objective of dual operation of the Asealing machine to which reference was made supra, the mount-loading machine must simultaneously load a lamp mount on each of spindles 32 and 35.

In order to eiect the transfer of a lamp mount to each of spindles 32 and 35, a mount-loader head stops momentarily over each of those spindles, whereupon each of those spindles is caused by the mechanism of the lampfsealing machine to ascend to meet the mount-loader head. The relativepositioning of the sealing-machine spindleswhich are hollow, with respect to the mountloader heads is suchthat each of spindles 32 and 35 V At'this point, the jaws of the appropriate mount-'loader heads are caused to open, the two lampv mounts lfall,respeztiyely onto spindles 32 and 35, Vsealing-machine spindles 32 and 35 descend to permit the filamentsV of the lamp mounts to clear the jaws of the mount-loader heads as the spindles move along in their circular path, the jaws of the two mount-loaderheads re-close, and the travel of the mountloader conveyor continues in the clockwise direction as shown in Fig. l.

It will thus be seen that two lamp mounts have been picked up from mount conveyor or accumulator 11, they have been righted so that their laments are uppermost, and they Vhave been placed respectively on spindles 32 and 35 ofthe lamp-sealing machine ready for further processing. During this entire process, the orientations ofthe lamp mounts have been carefully preserved so that, if iilament leads happen to be of dissimilar types, saidleads will not have become'confused or interchanged. The details of the mechanisms for preserving the orientations will be described in the paragraphs to follow. It will also be explained why, although two lamp mounts were picked up simultaneously from two adjacent stations of the mount accumulator, the two lamp mounts which were discharged to the lamp-sealing machine were discharged -onto spindles Vwhich are non-adjacent. This, explanation will be facilitated if the progress of a pair of lamp mounts through the loading machine is again traced, but if, this time, the mechanical details are fully diseussed. Inasmuch as-the operation of the machine seems t9 be logically resplvable into three stages, i.e. pick-up,

righting, and discharge of the mounts, the mechanical details will be discussed under those three headings.

Pick-up of lamp mounts In Figs. 1 and 2, at the left, appears a portion of the machine which was referred to in the paragraphs above as an intermediate conveyor or mount accumulator 11. The mount-loader of our invention appears in the mid-portion of Figs. 1 and 2, and `a portion of a lamp-sealing machine turret 30 appears at the right-hand side. The mountloading machine is organized about a frame 4f) and is driven by a series of linkages which in turn are driven by cams attached to a cam shaft 41 appearing in the lower right-hand corner of Fig. 2. The power transmitted through cam shaft 41 may also be employed to drive mount conveyor or accumulator 11, which should be briefly explained at this point in order to facilitate a better understanding of the mount-pick-up step performed by the loader. Mount accumulator 11 may be organized about a frame 42, and the pertinent portion of the machine adjacent the mount loader includes a pair of transfer slides 13 and a pair of mount carrier forks 61 and 62 to which passing reference was made in the earlier paragraphs of this specification. Transfer slides 13 are driven to the right by a T-bar 43 which is in turn actuated by a crank 44, as best shown in the view of Fig. 2. Crank 44 may be rotated about lan axis 45 by a push rod 46 which, in turn, is actuated by another crank 47 and another push rod 48 deriving their motion from a lever 49 and a cam follower 50 which rolls on a cam 51 attached to the aforementioned cam shaft 41. It will be observed that, since lever 49 is restrained by a spring 53 so that cam follower 50 remains in contact with cam 51, the motion transmitted through the above-described linkage to transfer slides 13 is a reciprocating motion. Specifically, transfer slides 13 are caused to move to the right only when lamp mounts are present in their paths of travel, and their reciprocating motion is such that, once the lamp mounts have been transferred to the mountloading machine, the transfer slides return to ,theirlefthand positions where they remain until two more lamp mounts have been brought into their paths of travel.

The mechanism for bringing additional lamp mounts into the paths of transfer-slide travel includes a conveyor chain 60 having mounted thereon at evenly spaced intervals lamp-mount carrier forks such as 61 and 62, which bear the lamp mounts into positions where they may be picked up by transfer slides 13. Reference to Fig. 2 shows that, when transfer slides 13` move to the right, they slide along lamp mount carrier forks 61 and 62 and take with them the respective lamp mounts carried by carrier forks 61 and 62. When the rightward motion of T-bar 43 takes place, a mount-press positioner 64 moves to the right therewith land presses the pair of lamp mounts against a rail 65 which is attached to frame 40 of the mount-loading machine. Inasmuch as each lamp mount is characterized by a pair of flattened places on either side of its glass stem, the effect of cooperation between mount-press positioner 64 and rail 65 is to orient the lamp mounts in such a way that the flattened places on the stem, which are technically termed the press, are in planes which are substantially perpendicular to the direction of travel of T-bar 43. As has been previously mentioned, this orientation is important because the lamp mount must have a known orientation at the time it is picked up by the mount-loading machine, and this orientation must :remain known until the lamp mount is placed on the spindle of the sealing machine.

Prior to the time during each cycle of operation when T-bar 43 moved to the right, jaws 14, 15, 16, and 17 of the respective mount-loader heads 18 and 19 had been caused to open to receive the lamp mounts. The opening of the jaws was achieved by means of a mechanical linkage part of which appears near the top of Fig. 2. However, before the method of operation of this linkage `can be completely understood, it will be desirable to explain further the structure of the mount-loading heads as best shown in Figs. 3, 4, and 5. Fig. 3 may be considered to be a top view of a mount-loading head, of which Fig. 4 is a sectional front-elevation view taken along the line 4 4. It will be seen that the mount-loader head includes a base 70 which is firmly attached by pins to a link of conveyor chain 23 and that base 70 is provided with a central axis 71 to which is xed a stem 72 carrying on bearings 73 a relatively rotatable portion 74 having a bevel pinion 75 surrounding it. As has been mentioned, it is important that the rotation of relativelyrotatable portion 74 with respect to base 70 be restricted to 180 degrees at a time. In order to assure this exact amount of rotation, base 70 is provided with a detent comprising a spring 76 and a ball 77 which is forced into recesses in rotatable portion- 74 when those recesses are oriented on the axis of spring 76. By l-ocating the recesses on a diameter of rotatable portion 74, it can be assured that rotatable portion 74 will move in steps of exactly 180 degrees. The jaws of the mount-loader head are pivoted to a fork 79 formed in the end of rotatable portion 74 and are respectively held in place by pins 80 and 81 to which the jaws are respectively secured. The motion of pins and 81 is linked by means of two gears 83 and 84 which are respectively secured thereto in meshing relationship. Each of pins 80 and 81 possesses an extended portion which is flattened on two sides to transform the pin into a key. For reasons which will later become apparent, the key portion of pin 80 extends outwardly from the jaws in a direction substantially opposite to that in which the key portion of pin 81 extends. The motion of the mount-loader head jaws may be restrained by a coil spring 85 connected between two pins 86 and S7, each of which is firmly set in one of the jaws. It will be noted that the jaws may 'both be provided with notches 89 for receiving the lamp mount, or if desired, only one of the jaws may incorporate a notch 'while the face of the other jaws is made substantially fiat. The opening of the jaws to receive and to discharge lamp mounts may be effected by means of a yoke which will later be described. The yoke embraces the key portion of either pin 80 or 81 and rotates one of said pins, thereby bringing about the rotation of the other pin and the opening of the jaws by means of meshing gears 83 and 84. Since it is desirable that the opening and closing lof the mount-loader-head jaws be possible regardless of whether the rotatable portion of the head is positioned with the coil-spring side upward or downward, and, further, since the yoke which rotates pin 80 or 81 will always operate up on a pin which extends from the same relative position, the projecting key portions of pins 80 and 81 are staggered as best shown in Fig. 5. In other words, it will be noted that, while pin 81 extends upwardly from the left-hand side of the head in this view, pin 80 extends downwardly from the right-hand side of the head in the same view. Thus, either pin 80 or pin 81 will be able to provide a key portion to be engaged by a yoke which is centered over one of the pins rather than over the midpoint between the pins. Finally, the mount-loader heads may, if desired, be supplied with flattened portions 91 and 92 as best shown in the top view of Fig. 3. Flattened portions 91 and 92 permit another yoke to be lowered over the head at a point adjacent bevel pin 75 in order accurately to position the head prior to the time of discharging the lamp mount. Further discussion of this operation will be presented at the time when the discharge operation is generally described.

Having described in detail the mount-loader head and the operation thereof in opening its jaws to receive mounts thereinto'from mount accumulator 11, the remainder of the mount-pick-up operation will now be discussed. The yoke to which reference was made and which engages pin 80 or pin 81 to produce opening of the head jaws appears at 93 in Fig. 2. Yoke 93 is firmly attached to a shaft 94 journalled in a bracket 95, said shaft 94 being of the mount-loader heads is from right to left.

rotated at intervals by means of a crank 96 and a pushrod 97 which is in turn actuated by a crank 98. Crank 98 is firmly mounted upon a substantially vertical shaft '99 having at or `near its lower extremity a crank 100 which is moved by a push rod 101 that is pivoted to a lever 102 having a cam follower 103. Cam follower 103 rides upon a cam 104 carried by cam sha-ft 41, and transmits motion through the above-described linkage to the mount-loader head jaws so that they open prior to the time when the lamp mounts are transferred thereinto and so that they close once the lamp mounts are embraced between the jaws but prior to the time when transfer slides 13 are caused by their actuating linkage to retract toward conveyor or mount accumulator 11. It will be noted that the jaws-opening-and-closing mechanism of only one mount-loader head in pick-up position is directly actuated from .the above-described linkage, while the opening and closing of the jaws of the other head in pick-up position is indirectly effected from the first head by means of a push rod 105.

When the pick-up operation has been completed as described, conveyor 22 of the mount-loader is caused by its drive linkage to index or move through a step in a clockwise direction as viewed in Fig. 1. The indexing motion is imparted to chain 23 of conveyor 22 by means of sprockets 107, 108, 109, and 110, which are mounted in the horizontal plane of the chain with their respective axes in a substantially vertical position. Sprocket 109 is the drive sprocket and receives its torque from a main drive shaft 112 to which it is firmly fastened. Main drive shaft 112 is caused to index or rotate in intermittent steps by means of a ratchet wheel 113 firmly iixed thereto, which is in turn rotated by apawl v114 which is in turn actuated by a crank 115. Crank 115 receives its motion from another crank 116 fixed to secondmain shaft 117 driven by a crank 118, a push rod 119, and a lever 120 `having a cam `follower 121 which rides on a cam 122 mounted on cam shaft 41 las shownin Fig. 2.

Rghtlig of lamp mounts Having described how a lamp mount is grasped by a mount-loader head, and having shown how the motion ofthe mount-loader head on conveyor 22 gets under way, it will now be explained how inversion of the rotatable portion of the mount-loader head is brought about and how a consequent righting of the lamp mount is produced. As chain 23 moves in a clockwise direction in Fig. 1, lthe heads moves along so that flat places which may be formed in the heads at point 130 are guided by a cooperating flat guide or track 131 which appears as the outer boundary of conveyor 22 in Fig. l. However, guide 131 does not extend beyond point 25, where one end of rack 26 is afiixed to the frame of conveyor 22. At that point, bevel pinion 75 of the mount-loader head engages rack 26 and, as chain 23 indexes, rotatable portion 74 of the head is caused to turn in a manner well shown in Figs. 6 and 7. In those figures, the motion The lamp mount appears in the right-hand mount-loader head in a filament-downward position; in the center head, the mount has been caused to assure a substantially horizontal position; and in the left-hand head, the lamp mount will be seen to have assumed a righted or filament-up position. These views show clearly the way in which the lamp mount may be grasped by the mountloader head jaws with the flare of the lamp mount close to the jaws and with the exhaust tube of the lamp mount grasped firmly between the jaws. Fig. 6 makes it clear that, as seen from the jaws,-a key for controlling opening and closing of the jaws appears on the left both before and after the inversion of the rotatable portion of the head. Following inversion of the rotatable portion of the head, further indexing of chain 23 brings a flat portion 130 of the head into proximity with another guide A133 attached to the frame of conveyor 22 which prevents further rotation of said rotatable portion, and maintains the lamp mount in an upright position until it reaches the station where it is to be discharged to the lamp-sealing machine.

Discharge of lamp mounts As has been generally described in the foregoing paragraphs, the indexing of the mount-loading machine conveyor has brought typical mount-bearing heads through the stage of mount-righting to the stage where the mounts are to be discharged onto spindles, of the lamp-sealing machine. At this point, as previously stated, the precise positioning of the mounts is especially important. Between the indexing motions of the conveyor, a reasonable degree of stability has been insured by means of a locking lever which engages slots in ratchet wheel 113 as best shown in Fig. 8. Locking lever 150 carries a roller 151 and is pivoted to the frame by a pin 152. A coil spring or similar resilient means 153 having one end attached to locking lever 150 and another end attached to the mount-loading machine frame or some other anchor point causes roller 151 to fall into one of the slots of the ratchet wheel at all times except when the ratchet wheel is being caused to index by pawl 114. Furthermore, a portion 141 of yoke 140 prevents pawl 114 from engaging a new slot when locking lever 150 is in the locked position shown in Fig. 8. However, despite those precautions taken to insure stability, it may be found necessary to employ further positioning means to hold the mount-loader heads at the time of discharge of the mounts. Such further positioning means may take the form of a slide 155 having at its lower extremity a yoke which can descend over the mount-loadingmachine head and hold it lirrnly. This positioning action is facilitated if flat places 91 and 92 are incorporated in the head. Slide 155 may be actuated intermittently up and down by a bracket 156 attached thereto which is in turn caused to reciprocate by a crank 157, a shaft 158, and another crank 159. Crank 159 may be coupled through an intermediate linkage to shaft 158 in order to permit transmission of motion therethrough. Crank 159 is actuated by a push rod 160 which is in turn caused to reciprocate by a lever 161 having a cam lfollower 162 bearing against a cam 163 which is in turn xed to cam shaft 41.

Opening of the j aws of the mount-loading machine heads to permit discharge of the lamp mounts is accomplished in a manner analogous to that in which the jaws were opened to receive the lamp mounts from mount 'accumulator 11. Rotation of pin 80 or 81 is accomplished by a yoke 165formed on a shaft 166 which may be actuated up and down by means of cranks 159 and 157 or 167, depending upon which of the two discharge stations is being considered. Power for actuating upand-down the yokes at both discharge stations is supplied through linkages deriving their motion from crank 159, which is the same crank that Supplies the motion causing up-and-down reciprocation of slide 155. Rotation of yoke 165 is accomplished through a mechanical linkage including cranks and push rod 171, which is in turn actuated by crank 98, the same crank which through a mechanical linkage causes the rotation of yoke 93 at the pick-up side of the mount-loading machine. To restate briefly the steps in the mount-discharge operation, when the mount-loading machine heads are in approximately the correct positions for discharging mounts, slide 155 and yoke 165 simultaneously descend into contact with a mount-loader head, the former achieving accurate positioning of the head, and the latter coming into position to rotate pin 80 or 81. When, subsequently, yoke 165 is caused by its mechanical linkage to rotate pin 80 or 81, the mount-loader head jaws open and a mount is allowed to drop a short distance into thelamp-sealing-machine spindle. It happens that, because of similarity of power source of the actuating linkages, the jaws of a mount-loader head in mountpick-up position open at the same time as the jaws of a head in mount-discharge position, and the mountloader-head jaws in pick-up position close at the same time as the mount-loader-head jaws in discharge position. It will be observed that the jaw opening and closing is directly actuated in only one of the mount-discharge positions, and that the jaws of the head in the other mountdischarge position are indirectly actuated through a push rod 175.

When the machine indexes so that spindles 32, 35 are in register with and below the jaws 14, 17 of the mountloading heads the spindles rise to embrace the exhaust tubes 20 and the jaws 14, 17 open to release the mount to the spindles 32, 35 which then drop to a lower posi tion, so the mount will clear the jaws 14, 17 of the mountloaders. The vertical motion of the spindles 32, 35 can be caused by a cam on cam shaft 41 which acts on the bottom of the sealing spindles when the latter are in the proper positions.

Reference has been made to the fact that it may be desired under many circumstances to operate the lampsealing machine in a dual fashion, that is to say, every indexing motion of lamp-sealing machine turret 39 should lead to the performance of a similar manufacturing operation upon two lamps rather than merely on one lamp. This means that each indexing movement of the lampsealing machine `should involve rotation of turret 30 through a circular arc which is equal to twice the arc subtended by adjacent spindles of the lamp-sealing machine rather than merely through an arc subtended by adjacent spindles of the sealing machine. A further consideration is the fact that like operations are performed on lamp assemblies residing on sealing-machine spindles which may be spaced apart by three or more inter-spindle spaces. That is to say, if a lamp mount is discharged onto sealing-machine spindle 32, another lamp mount must simultaneously be discharged onto sealingmachine spindle 35, which in the embodiment being described happens to be spaced from sealing-machine spindle 32 by three inter-spindle spaces. With such dual operation, only alternate mount holders will deposit a mount on a spindle 32 at the rst loading station, the other mount holders depositing their mounts onto a spindle 35 at the second loading station. Accordingly on the portion of the mount-holder conveyor between the two loading stations, there will be a mount on each alternate mount holder. Since the sealing heads, of which the spindles 32, 35 are a part are much larger than the mount holders and are consequently spaced farther apart, 'the spindles travel a greater distance on each indexing movement than do the mount-holders. The spindle 32 then passes beyond and below the alternate mount-holder, which carries a mount, and to avoid a collision between the lower part of the mount on the conveyor chain 23 and the upper part of the mount on the spindle 32, the path of the chain conveyor 23 is deected slightly between sprockets 168 and 109 by placing an idler 111 to force the chain conveyor out slightly near the middle of the path between the two loading stations, that is the two stations at which a spindle is in register with a pair of jaws 14-17.

We have found further that, if the chord between spinles 32 and 35 of the sealing machine be considered a base line, the axes for sprockets 103 and 109 may well be located respectively at points other than on normals erected to the base line in a horizontal plane at spindles 32 and 35. In other words, it may be found helpful to locate the centers of the axes of sprockets 108 and 169 closer together than are the centers of spindles 32 and 35 of the sealing machine, so that the directions of larnp mount discharge may have components along the base line as well as normal thereto.

It was previously -stated that some lampsealing machines for dual operation have turrets which move through an arc subtended by substantially twice the interspindle distance during each indexing movement. In order to accommodate such sealing machines, mount-loading machines may be designed for a similar type of index motion, whereby indexing motion carries conveyor chain 23 through a distance equal to substantially twice the distance between the centers of adjacent mount-loadingmachine heads on a straight portion of conveyor chain 23. The embodiment described in this specification is, in fact, based upon the assumption that such operation is desired. Hence, the design of our mount-loading machine disclosed herein is such that, while mounts are simultaneously picked up from adjacent carrier forks of 'mount accumulator 11, mounts are simultaneously discharged to the lamp-sealing machine from mount-loader heads which are not adjacent to each other butA which may be separated by as many as four other mount-loader heads. it seems that the number of mount-loader heads on the conveyor between the two mount-loader heads which make simultaneous discharge of lamp mounts should always be an even number in order that every lamp mount which reaches the discharge side of the loading machine and which is not discharged at the rst discharge station will certainly be discharged at the second discharge station. We have found that, if the centers of adjacent sealing-machine spindles are separated by a distance of 31/2, satisfactory transfer of lamp mounts to the spindles may be accomplished by employing mountloading-machine heads having centers which are spaced at intervals of 2 on straight portions of the conveyor chain. Exact accommodation can be produced by the methods which have just been described.

Following discharge of a lamp mount from the mountloading-machine head to a spindle of the lamp-sealing machine, the mount-loading machine head which formerly carried the mount proceeds by indexing steps to be carried around the remainder of the path dened by conveyor chain 23 and eventually reaches the mount-pick-up station again, whereupon it is ready to repeat its loading cycle. This type of operation may be carried on indefinitely, and, we have found, facilitates high-volume production of lamps with a very small amount of htunan supervision. This, of course, is the fundamentaal objective which our lamp-mount-loadng machine is intended to fulfill.

While the embodiment which has been described in the preceding paragraphs was chosen to illustrate the general principles of our invention, it will be understood that the number, array, nature, and disposition of the mechanical components may be varied considerably in order to meet a number of different operational and envlronmental requirements without departing from the scope of our invention.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In combination, a conveyor for a series of mountholders, a conveyor for a series of mount-receiving spindles, the latter being below the former and the projection of the path of the mount-holders onto the path of the spindles intersecting the latter at two points, the spacing between each two mount-holders and between each two spindles being such that a mount-holder comes into registration with, and above, a spindle at each of said points of intersection, means for raising a spindle toward the mount-holder to receive a mount at each of said positions and means for releasing a mount from a mount-holder onto said spindle when said spindle is raised.

2. The combination of claim 1, in which the spacing is such that there is an even number of mount-holders in each length of their path equal to the length of travel of the mount-holders between said points of intersection exclusive of the mount-holders at each end of said length, and in which there is an even number of spindles in each length of their path equal to the length of travel of the spindles between said points of intersection, exclusive of the spindles at each end of said length.

3. A mount loader for lamp-manufacturing machines comprising head means for grasping at least one lamp mount in substantially inverted position, means for rotating at least a portion of said head means to eiect the righting of said lamp mount, means for conveying said lampmount-grasping head means into proximity with a lampysealing-machine head, and means for discharging said righted lamp mount onto said lamp-sealing-machine head in predetermined position relative thereto, said last-mentioned means including yoke means so arranged as to embrace at least one of said head means at the time of discharge of said lamp mount by said head means.

4. A mount loader for a lamp-sealing machine comprising head means for holding at least one lamp mount in a substantially inverted position, means for rotating at least a portion of said head means to right said lamp mount in response to movement of said head means, means for moving said head means into proximity to said lamp-sealing machine, and means for discharging said righted lamp mount onto said lamp-sealing machine, said last-mentioned means including yoke means for embracing at least vone of said head means during discharge of said lamp mount as said head means is disposed in predetermined relationship to said lamp-sealing machine.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNlTED STATES PATENTS vs me 

